SUB:STANCE reissues reaffirm the label's place in the UK underground pantheon

A still-obscure Shackleton is laying down his latest experimental live set, a blueprint for what might later be coined ‘deconstructed club music’. I can hardly believe my ears. The likes of Nonplus label boss Boddika and a nascent George Fitzgerald, alongside SUB:STANCE head Scuba, proceed to roll out the freshest of sounds to a bouncing dancefloor. This is the very apex of what can only be described as a revolution in music culture.

SUB:STANCE was the forward thinking label and event series co-founded by the man behind the highly successful Hotflush record label – Paul Rose (AKA Scuba). In 2008, a year after moving to Berlin, he began curating the SUB:STANCE parties at Berghain, which became a playground for cross-pollination in which he debuted distinguished artists such as James Blake, Mala and Gilles Peterson. SUB:STANCE became emblematic of this ongoing dialogue between the UK and Berlin, as these scenes sought to navigate through uncharted territory.

At the time music culture was accelerating to such an extent that it felt as if you could see its minute evolution and mutations as each day went by; out in clubs dubstep, UK Bass and the stirrings of a UKG revival were reinventing the dancefloor on a weekly basis. It was an incredibly exciting time, when the Internet suddenly made all things possible and kids were beginning to produce hits in their bedroom on Fruity Loops and cheap headphones from Argos.

10 years on and Rose has decided it’s time to revisit this fertile period with a trilogy of albums – a substantial treasure-trove of unreleased material and tracks previously only available on vinyl.

SUB:STANCE in Retrograde includes 10 previously unheard tracks that were written by Rose from this time. The sound is unmistakably Scuba – polished, melodic, and forward-looking. Shuffling 2-step rhythms drive things forward with an optimism (“Ants”), whilst the trademark broken-beats on tracks like “Gyroscope” and the lumbersome “Lay” are one of the many tropes of this era. The pulsating “Weberwiese” sees Rose turn his expert hand to deep, atmospheric dubstep, and likewise “Buzzsaw”’s blistering synths and hefty subs show that, if needed, he could stand his ground alongside peers like Digital Mystikz. The sound is neat, detailed, full of character.

Talking of DMZ, both Mala and Skream feature on the next album - Sound of SUB:STANCE, a compilation of 29 tracks from an impressive roster of artists from Shackleton and Sepalcure, all the way to Appleblim, Addison Groove, and Trevino (alias of the late drum ‘n’ bass artist Marcus Intalex). Mala’s “Eyez” epitomises the slogan “come meditate on bass weight.” The tune isn’t the heaviest, but its minimal, stripped back structure and tripped distortions blend with ominous pads to paint a starkly cinematic landscape. Killer.

There’s a lot of dubstep here, spaced out by the odd 4-4 track, like Appleblim’s “Darkest Red”, which doesn’t say too much. The real interest (and quite rightly so) can be found in the hybrid bass experiments littered throughout. Skream’s “Ain’t it Cold?” is a wigged-out breakbeat workout, relatively simple yet arguably one of his better, more effective productions. Vex’d’s “Titan Rain” is archetypal ‘wob-wob’ dubstep with magazine clip samples and hard-as-nails snare hits, one of the many tracks on the comp that are full of attitude. On the deeper side, Instra:mental (a legendary collaboration between Boddika and Jon Convex) offer up the quietly driving “Vicodin”, which features softly pulsing synths and restrained drum work.

Understandably there are aspects of the sound that haven’t aged so well. Roska’s sample-centred “Schmuk” feels too whimsical to be taken seriously and Addison Groove’s “Forgiven”, or Trevino’s “Derelicht”, although executed well, retrospectively don’t work so great; overzealous 909s, milked snare rolls, sampled vox and overly simple arrangements might have given this music some charm back in the day, but it’s obvious to notice the points of maturity since then. It’s completely fair enough, considering how quickly things have moved in the past decade.

A Mutual Antipathy Revisited sees a full remaster of Scuba’s debut LP, originally released in 2008, plus a previously unreleased track with Amp Fiddler. With remixes from the likes of Surgeon and Substance (amongst others) it’s a worthwhile journey into the sound of one of electronic music’s recent luminaries.

The re-emergence of SUB:STANCE has been a somewhat prophetic event. I found increasingly that my conversations regarding electronic music often gravitated towards this era of music - the few years either side of 2010 – and specifically, explicitly SUB:STANCE. It’s no coincidence that the project has stayed in my memory as an absolutely critical time in club culture. I candidly reminisce about this period, which yielded the likes of James Blake, Burial and the rise of Hyperdub, Hessle Audio, DMZ, etc. Music did not know what it was becoming, it was pure and brave experimentation that looked to break free from inherent restraint, and did so with real homage to the past.

It might not be so surprising that SUB:STANCE quickly flew off the radar after it was disbanded. But those five years it operated were a crucially significant chapter, a cornerstone on which contemporary electronic music holds its foundation. The retrospective SUB:STANCE releases on Hotflush here are a real treasure and an informative education into the very fabric of club culture today.